Artificial fuel.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM A. KONEMAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO INTERNA- TIONAL FUEL COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

ARTIFICIAL FUEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 711,167, dated October 14, 1902.

Application filed June 14, 1902. Serial No. 111,738. (No specimens.)

T all 1077107711 it y Con/067%: them of a degree of fineness and in the rela- Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. KONEMAN, tive proportions which will produce the quala citizen of the United States, residing at Ohiity of fuel desired.

cago, in the county of Cook and State of Illi- One of the important features of my inven- 5 nois, have invented a new and useful Imtion lies in the factthat therebya fuel of any provement in Artificial Fuel, of which the foldesired quality and for any desired purpose lowing is a specification. maybe readily produced and objectionable My object is to provide as a new article of features alleviated. For example, ordinary manufacture an improved artificial briquet anthracite waste or screenings contains fit- [0 which shall possess calorific qualities of an teen per cent. or more of incombustible maexceptionally high order, yielding substanterial or ash. If such anthracite is suitably tially complete combustion without waste of pulverized and mixed in the proportion of any of its carbonaceous ingredients and be two-thirds thereof to one-third coking-coal capable of withstanding disintegration in oryielding six per cent. of ash, a fuel is obtained 15 dinary handling or from exposure to the eleyielding but twelve per cent. of ash. The ments. per cent. of ash maybe still further reduced My improved fuel-briquet comprises, genby employing a somewhat-better grade of anerallystated, amixture consisting of pulveruthracite screenings in the mixture. If it is lent non-coking coal, such as anthracite, desired to obtain a fuel which in burning z'o graphitic carbon, certain lignites, &c., and a shall be absolutely smokeless and give but more or less finely-divided coking-coal in delittle flame, a mixture consisting of eighty sired proportions, together with an insoluble per cent. anthracite waste and twenty per agglutinant which will serve to hold the bricent. strong coking gas-coal meets the requeted materialagainstdisintegrationin hanquirements and affords a highly-desirable 25 dling or from the effects of the atmosphere or fuel forself-feeding stoves. A smokeless fuel of moisture and which when the briquet is fed having very high calorific power and giving into a furnace will hold the particles of coal a long flame may be produced by mixing together until the non-coking coal portion besixty per cent. of anthracite with forty per comes entangled and held by the coke formed cent. of coking coal of good grade, result- 0 from the coking-coal during initial combusing in a smokeless fuel highly desirable for tion. marine use and also for use in grates, as it In the production of my improved briquets gives off a flame similar to that of burning I take advantage of the fact that the oxidawood. For ordinary commercial steam use a tion of a mineral substance may be most first-class fuel maybe produced with amix- 35 quickly and readily effected when the same ture consisting of two-thirds anthracite and is subjected in a finely-pulverized condition one-third coking-coal possessing thirty-five to an incandescing temperature in the presto forty per cent. of volatile ingredients. It ence of oxygen. To this end I subject the will suffice to state that in the preparation of non-coking-coal ingredient of my improved the coal ingredients to produce the best re- 0 briquet to artificialpulverization because orsults they are fed in the predetermined prodinarynon-cokiugcoal-culm-such asscreenportions to a suitable pulverizer and there dust, slack, and refuse anthraciteis too ground and intimately mixed until the whole 0 coarse for economical use in my briquets. mass will pass througha screen of a fineness The coking-coal, asIprovideit, maybe somewhich will insure perfect combustion of the 5 what coarser than the non coking coal, most refractory combustible ingredients though it should be sufficiently fine to efiect thereof. The binding agent or agglutinant properly intimateintermixture. In the prepwhich I prefer to employ is what has been aration of the coals for the briquets I provide termed bone soup, an extract prepared from animal bones mixed with butcher-shop and slaughter-house refuse, carcasses of anim als generally; also, the bones, entrails, &c., of fowls. In preparing the extract for my purpose I prefer to reduce the bones to small pieces and subject them with the other refuse material in a suitable vessel to the action of steam under preferably about forty pounds pressure for a suitable length of time, usually about six hours. In the treatment of the bones, &c., as described large percentages of gelatin and chondrin, as well as meat fiber, refuse, and grease, are produced, all of which have commercial value, and afilter-press may be employed to separate therefrom the crude bone-liquor extract or bone-soup. The bonesoup consists of about two-thirds glutin and one-third chondrin, to which water may be added before use to make a ten to fifteen per cent. solution. The diluted extract is thoroughly stirred into the coals mixture to be come closely associated therewith. The ag glutinating material should be rendered insoluble, and for that purpose I prefer for reasons of economy to subject it to the action of chlorin-gas generated within the moistened coals mixture, to which is added a suitable sulfate-of-iron solution. As a still further aid to combustion, particularly when a large percentage of graphitic carbon is used, a small amount-say one-half to one and onehalf per cent.-of potassium nitrate or other oxygen-yielding salt may be added to the mixture.

In regulatingthe proportions of anthracite or non-coking coal and bituminous cokingcoal it is necessary for the best results to provide the latter in relative proportion at least sufficient to operate when coked as a means for holding by agglomeration the non-coking particles. Taking this proportion of cokingcoal as the minimum, more may be employed, if desired. Sufficientsay from ten to twelve and one-half per cent.-of the ten to fifteen per cent. solution of-agglutinating liquor is mixed with the coal after pulverization, as described, to render the mass sufficiently coherent for ready molding into briquets, the same being formed under pressure in any desired manner and dried. When the briquet. is burned, the agglutinating material operates to hold the coal particles together, while during the initial combustion .of the particles of coking-coal the coking-coal particles are forming into coke'and until they entangle themselves with the particles of anthracite or other non-coking coal employed. The agglutinating material described burns without appreciable smoke, and in the conversion of the coking-coal into coke the hydrocarbons initially eliminated, owing to the fine state of division of the coal and the small percentage of volatile hydrocarbons set free from the mass of briqueted material, are so completely consumed that underproper conditions no appreciable smoke is generated. When the briquet is ignited, immediate combustion and consequent destruction of the agglutinant takes place, and were it not for the presence of the agglomerating coking-coal the briquet would disintegrate and the component powder would soonchoke the fire; but as the coking action of the coking-coal commences at once and continues during the entire time that the volatile constituents are discharged the coke so formed entangles the fine particles of anthracite or the like and holds them in a way to insure rapid and perfect combustion. Experiments carried on in the burning of my improved briquets formed with seventy-five per cent. anthracite have resulted in such perfect combustion that no unconsumed carbonaceous material was present in the ash. The same effect may be produced with my improved briquet formed with graphitic and other non-coking coals when suitably pulverized and when sufficient coking-coal is mixed therewith in the briquet.

My invention makes it possible to utilize in the production of highly-desirable artificial fuel carbonaceous material which has hitherto, either on account of its physical condition or inherent properties, or both, been generally regarded as an undesirable fuel, and therefore of little commercial value. Immense beds of graphitic coal and large quantities of lo w-grade anthracite-coal screenings, which are incapable of use as fuel in their existing condition, may be rendered valuable by my improvement. By pulverizing such anthracite or graphitic carbon to a sufficiently-fine mesh and mixing it with a suitable proportion of bituminous coal and a suitable agglutinating material,such as described, a most desirable and economical fuel-briquet is readily provided.

It will be understood from the foregoing description that my invention consists, broadly, in the method of manufacturing an artificialfuel briquet, as above described, and also in the article of manufacture consisting of anthracite or other non-coking coal ground to a fine powder and more or less finely divided coking-coal, mixed together in suitable proportions with an insoluble and combustible agglutinant which will operate when the briquet is ignited to hold the particles of coal together during the coking of the bituminous coal, so that the latter will operate to hold the anthracite particles until both are consum'ed, leaving no unconsumed carbon in the ash. The insoluble agglutinant above described is the one I prefer to employ, because it is eminently satisfactory and is the least expensive of any insoluble smokeless agglutinating material of which I am aware. In fact, in the production of the bone-soup, as described, the by-products have a commercial value which more than covers the entire cost of agglutinating material and labor. In the present connection, however, I do not wish to limit my invention in its broadest sense to the use of any particular agglutinating mate-, rial, though coal-tar, pitch, and other volatile heavy hydrocarbons are objectionable because they produce smoke. The insoluble gluten and chondrin binding material above described will operate to maintain thebriquet intactduringordinaryhandling. The briquet may be strengthened, if desired, by mixing with the pulverized mass fibrous material, such as hemp. The hemp fiber may be obtained from waste rope, which is inexpensive. The incorporation of combustible fibrous material with the briquet material is very desirable where the briquets are to be capable more especially of withstanding more than ordinary rough handling as, for example, where they are to be shipped to foreign countries and handled repeatedly.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The method of manufacturing an artificial-fuel briquet, which consists in reducing a non-coking coal to a pulverulent condition, reducing a coking-coal to a pulverulent, or approximately pulverulent, condition, mixing the two together with an agglutinant and forming the mixture into briquets.

2. The method of manufacturing an artificial-fuel briquet, which consists in reducing a non-coking coal to a pulverulent condition, reducing a coking-coal to a pulverulent, or approximately pulverulent condition, mixing the two together with agglutinating material, rendering the agglutinating ingredient in the mixture insoluble, and forming the mixture into briquets.

3. The method of manufacturing an artificial-fuel briquet, which consists in pulverizing and mixing together in one operation noncoking and coking-coals in suitable proportions, and adding to and mixing with the coal mass an agglutinating material, and forming the mixture into briquets.

4. The method of manufacturing an artificial-fuel briquet, which consists in reducing a non-coking coal to a pulverulent condition, reducing a coking-coal to a pulverulent, or approximately pulverulent condition, mixing the two together, preparing an agglutinant composed of gluten and chondrin, mixing the same with the pulverized-coal mixture, rendering the agglutinant insoluble, and forming the mixture into briquets.

5. As a new article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet composed of pulverulent non-coking coal and more or less finely-divided coking-coal intimately mixed together, and insoluble agglutinating material mechanically uniting the mixed particles of coal and having the property of holdingthem together until entangled and held by the coke formed from the coking coal during initial combustion.

6. As a new article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet composed of pulverulent anthracite and more or less finely-divided coking-coal intimately mixed together, and insoluble agglutinating material mechanically uniting the mixedparticles of coal and having the property of holding them together until entangled and held by the coke formed from the coking-coal during initial combustion.

7. As a new article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet composed of pulverulent anthracite and more or less finely-divided bituminous coking-coal intimately mixed together, and insoluble agglutinating material mechanically uniting the mixed particles of coal and having the property of holding them together until entangled and held by the coke formed from the bituminous coal duringinitial combustion.

8. As a new article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet composed of a mass of pulverulent non-coking coal mechanically pulverized to pass through a screen of twenty mesh, or finer, and more or less finely-divided coking-coal in less proportion than the anthracite intimately mixed therewith, and insoluble agglutinating material mechanically uniting the mixed particles of coal and having the property of holding them together until entangled and held by the coke formed from the coking-coal during initial combustion.

9. As a new article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet composed of pulverulent non-coking coal and more or less finely-divided coking-coal intimately mixed together,

and an insoluble mixture of gluten and chondrin mechanically uniting the mixed particles of coal, whereby when the briquet is burned the non-coking particles are held by the coke formed from the coking particles during initial combustion.

10. As a new article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet composed of pulverulent non-coking coal, more or less finely-divided coking-coal, and combustible fibrous material, all intimately mixed together, and insoluble agglutinating material mechanically uniting the mixed particles of coal and fiber and having the property of holding the coal particles together until the particles of noncoking coal are entangled and held by the coke formed from the coking-coal during initial combustion.

11. As anew article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet, composed of pulverulent non-coking coal, more or less finely-divided coking-coal, and an oxygen-yielding salt intimately mixed together, and insoluble agglutinating material mechanically uniting the mixed particles of the mass and having the property of holding the particles of coal together until the particles of non-coking coal are entangled and held by the coke formed from the coking-coal during initial combustion.

12. As a new article of manufacture, an artificial-fuel briquet, composed of pulverulent entangled and held by the coke formed from the coking-coal during initial combustion.

WILLIAM A. KGNEMAN.

In presence of- ALBERT D. BACCI, WM. B. DAVIES. 

